Zana Briski andRoss Kauffman's Born Into Brothels and Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 shared top honours in the IDA'sDistinguished Documentary Achievement Awards.

Born IntoBrothels, which wasnamed on the 12-strong Academy Awards documentary shortlist this week, followsthe plight of children from Calcutta's red light district as they try to escapea doomed future.

Fahrenheit9/11 is the biggestgrossing documentary of all time and focuses on America's response to theSeptember 11 attacks and the effect of the Iraq War.

Jehane Noujaim'sControl Room, whichexamines Al Jazeera's coverage of the war, received an honourable mention inthe best feature category.

Robert Hudsonand Bobby Houston's Mighty Times Volume 2: The Children's March won the Short category. It recounts therole played by children in the civil rights fight in Birmingham, Alabama, in1963.

Bo Boudart andDale Djerassi's Oil On Ice won the 2004 Pare Lorentz Award, presented by the Pare LorentzFoundation to filmmakers whose work best represents the democratic sensibility,activist spirit and lyrical vision of the legendary documentarian.

The pictureexamines the battle over oil development within the Arctic National WildlifeRefuge and its effect on the indigenous Gwich'in Athabascan Indians and InupiatEskimos.

JonathanCaouette received the second ever Jacqueline Donnet Emerging DocumentaryFilmmaker Award for Tarnation, his startling portrait of a dysfunctional American family.

The award goesto an individual who has made at least one documentary and shows great promise.

'Thesedocumentaries were chosen by a jury of peers out of hundreds of films fromevery part of the world,' IDA executive director Sandra Ruch said in astatement.

'Each ofthem tells an important story that makes a deep and indelible impression. Theproducers and everyone else involved in creating these films have earned therespect and admiration of their peers in IDA."